Published 4:00 am, Thursday, July 7, 2005

Photo: KENDRA LUCK

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

CHEATERS 2-C-28JUL00-CZ-KL ---During the morning commute on west bound I-80 in Berkeley cheaters in the carpool lane are a common sight, cars are supposed to have three people in them, but many don't.
(KENDRA LUCK/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE) Interstate 80 less

CHEATERS 2-C-28JUL00-CZ-KL ---During the morning commute on west bound I-80 in Berkeley cheaters in the carpool lane are a common sight, cars are supposed to have three people in them, but many don't.
(KENDRA ... more

Weeks of preparations for the narrowly averted BART strike have highlighted how technology can improve transportation. And while there is near universal relief that a walkout and the resulting traffic nightmare were avoided, planners say the lessons learned can help improve regular commutes in the future.

"Thankfully, we didn't have to put our plans into effect, but to me it showed how businesses and transit agencies can work together," said Michael Cunningham, vice president for transportation with the Bay Area Council, a business-backed public policy group.

Cunningham said the 511 phone system and its related 511.org Web site had emerged as the focal point of preparations to mitigate the traffic confusion that was expected if 310,000 BART riders were forced to seek other ways to get to and from work. The 511 phone line and Web site provide highway travel times, mass transit schedules, ride-sharing matchups and bicycle options.

Melanie Crotty, a manager at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the regional agency that oversees 511 and other regional transit programs, said the combination of phone line and Web site is an improvement over a less- sophisticated, phone-only system that was in effect during the 1997 BART strike.

The calls to that service eight years ago convinced MTC officials that a central place for Bay Area transit updates was a must, especially in emergencies.

"We knew the public was clamoring for one place to figure out what their options were," said Crotty, who helped develop the 511 phone line in December 2002 and the online version a few months later.

In the weeks leading up to the threatened BART strike, Crotty said, MTC planners put their emphasis on the online system. "We knew the Web would be the preferred option because people would have time to plan their trips," she said.

Neil Schuster, president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America in Washington, said the Bay Area's 511 network is part of a nationwide effort to establish that number as the reference point for transit, just as 411 is synonymous with directory assistance and 911 is for emergencies.

He said the Bay Area's 511 network is the biggest and most complete of roughly two dozen such systems nationwide.

While 511 was the focal point of planning, business groups also worked to lessen the feared effects of a BART strike.

Those employees were asked how they would respond if BART were shut down by a strike. About one third said they would drive. Nearly 30 percent said they'd ride the bus. Just over 1 in 5 planned to carpool. The rest said they'd either work at home or bike to the office.

Kimberly Burke Martinson, executive director of the association, said the group's surveys suggest that carpools -- especially casual carpools -- are growing. After the last BART strike in 1997, an association survey found that about 8 percent of those 60,000 employees carpooled to work. In 2005, about 15 percent of the sample reported carpooling, she said.

Carpools were among the favorite options of people who tried to prepare for the BART walkout by seeking rides via Craigslist.org. Chief executive Jim Buckmaster said Craigslist generally has about 60 to 100 ride requests at any given time. Listings peaked at about 200 on Tuesday. Even as late as Wednesday, after the crisis had passed, there were still 150 listings containing the word "BART," Buckmaster said.

How a BART strike might have affected the Bay Area economy remains, thankfully, a matter for conjecture. In advance of the November 2004 bond issue in which voters approved a $980 million seismic upgrade program, BART hired consultants to estimate how the regional economy would be affected if the train system were knocked out by a major earthquake. That report suggested that it would cost about $5.4 million a day if employees were stuck in traffic while the trains were stopped.

But any such estimates should be taken with a grain of salt, according to traffic experts, who say the loss estimates were based on the questionable assumption that people would drive rather than find other options.

That sentiment was echoed by James Paxson, general manager of the Hacienda Business Park. This 7 million-square-foot office park in Pleasanton provides space for more than 16,000 workers who have fewer mass transit alternatives than employees in San Francisco or the inner East Bay, he said.

"I was greatly relieved when I looked out my window this morning and saw the BART trains running," Paxson said Wednesday afternoon.